


Settled Into Real Life

by This_ape_writes



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Implied Past Child Abuse, M/M, Misunderstanding, Shore Leave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 20:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8911216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/This_ape_writes/pseuds/This_ape_writes
Summary: Jim and Bones are on leave visiting Joanna and Joanna has a little bit of a melt down and Jim misunderstands what happens.





	

He can't stop pacing. 

He hates that he can't hear what's happening inside that room.

He feels absolutely sick and just wants to rewind the last ten minutes and start over. 

This wasn't how he envisioned their time off together to be. 

He paces. 

And waits. 

And almost tries to override the door when a noise makes him jump. 

The bedroom door finally slides open and the soft crying he can hear coming from inside, sends his stomach rolling wrongside out as he leans back against the wall beside the door. 

Bones steps into the hallway and shuts the door behind him. 

"Hey," he says with a soft smile as Jim looks up but it rapidly disappears into a frown when Jim lunges at him. 

"You didn't stop when I yelled at you to stop and why did you lock me out is she alright? I need to see her," he says grabbing towards the door. 

"Hey woah. Calm down. She's fine she needs a minute. And Jesus, it seems like you do to. Come'er." He tries to fight back when Bones grabs ahold of his arms but he lets himself be lead away from the door and back down the hall into the living room. "Here, Jim sit down. What's the matter with you?" Jim collapses into the couch and grabs ahold of his head. 

Bones feels a little bit lost here. 

It hadn't been bad enough he'd had to calm his little girl down from a temper tantrum now Bones has a boyfriend that is shaking like a leaf and looking pale like he is about to pass out because of it. 

One and one don't equal two here and he is a tiny bit confused. 

He reaches over to put a hand against Jim's back and Jim almost leaps completely to his feet to get away from him and the look he levels on him is one of pure anger. 

"I told you to stop it wasn't her fault," Jim says. Bones frowns. 

"I know that. It wasn't anyone's fault Jim. She just got upset. But she shouldn't have chucked a hairbrush at your head," Bones says with a mild grin. 

"Don't you dare smile at this," Jim growls and now Bones is completely confused. 

"Jim I don't... what's wrong?" 

"You shouldn't... you shouldn't have hit her over something that was my fault," he says, his fists clenched into his hair. 

"Woah now, hang on. I didn't 'hit' anybody," Bones says. And Jim glares at him. 

"Semantics," he spits out. "Spanking, paddling, whatever you call it, it doesn't change the fact that it's hitting someone plain and simple." And Bones frowns even more. 

"What on earth ar..." But he stops as his mind whirls around and picks up the scattered pieces of logic here. He can't understand how this went sideways. But he thinks he might finally have a tiny thread. "That's...wait. That's what you think just happened? I hit my seven year old daughter because she got upset that you were teasing her. Why the hell would I do that?" Bones asks. And this makes Jim sit up to look at him. 

He doesn't miss the faint tremor still in Jim's hands as he lowers them back into his lap and folds them together in a tight grip. 

Jim's eyes narrow. 

"You mean to tell me you grabbed her up with her hairbrush and locked both of you in her room to just have a friendly chat?" Jim snorts and gives him a look of disgust. "How stupid do you think I am," he says. 

"I swear I didn't hurt her. Jim I've, I've never hit anyone in my entire life. I'm not about to start with my little girl."

"But you locked the door." 

"Yes because you were tryin' to burst in after us and she needed a second to calm down away from you that's all," Bones chuckles but it's not because this is funny. It's because he's really starting to freak out. 

Now Jim's mind is the one racing around to try and find the pieces of this that make sense and he stares at Bones as he does. Bones holds up both of his hands and scoots just a tiny bit closer on the couch. Jim resents being treated like a wild god damned animal but he doesn't move as Bones settles into the couch again. "Sweetheart. Can I show you what happened just now?" He asks. Jim frowns even harder but he doesn't move. 

And he feels himself nodding. 

Bones nods back. And suddenly Jim is being hugged. Tight. And pulled closer on the sofa so that his head is against Bones' chest

That's it. 

Nothing else. 

He finds himself just being held. 

"It's alright. I let her be upset. And then I held her. Just like this. Until she calmed down. That's it." Jim relaxes a tiny bit and is surprised how nice this feels. 

Not that they never hug. 

They do. 

Frequently. But this is different. This feels nicer somehow. 

It's calming. 

He likes it. 

Jim lifts his head just enough so Bones' arm is no longer covering his mouth. 

"This is it? You swear," he mumbles. And he feels Bones nod against his hair. 

"Mmhmmm, I swear on my mama's life," he says. 

"Oh." 

And as he leans back against Bones even more, Jim suddenly feels horrified at himself and a little bit guilty. 

He'd been so sure that he'd just witnessed a new terrifying side of the man he thought he loved. He'd been almost sick when Bones had locked the door behind them shutting Jim out in the hallway. 

He'd immediately started planning how he was going to end things between them.

He couldn't stay with someone like that. 

But now it's like his feelings have done a complete 180 and he feels kinda stupid for overreacting. 

But he also is having a hard time trusting the truth. Abusive people do make really good liars. 

"Jim I feel you thinking. Come on darlin' talk to me what's wrong here?" Bones asks. 

And he sounds scared. 

Jim shakes his head but the terror in his stomach is back. 

"Why don't I believe you?" Jim asks. 

He pushes himself up and unwinds from Bones' arms so that he can sit up and one glance at Bones tells him he didn't just sound scared, he looks scared now too. 

"I don't know why you don't believe me kid. Help me out here," Bones says. He scoots closer now that Jim has pulled away and he's hesitant about it but reaches out to rest his warm palm against Jim's shoulder blade at his back. 

"Jim," Bones says in his 'ok I'm taking charge of this clusterfuck' voice that he gets when he's done dealing with nonsense. "You've never seen me be violent with anyone. Ever. Even in actual bar fights we've been in I won't even throw punches in self defense. Why would that be the first conclusion you jumped to today?" he asks. But his tone fades from in charge to just curious. And Jim relaxes just a bit. He looks down at the ground by his feet and he shakes his head. 

"It's nothing Bones. You're right. I'm sorry I doubted you. I just freaked. I guess I just haven't really seen other people interact with their kids before," Jim says. More for himself than anyone. 

"Jim. Why did you jump to that conclusion," Bones pushes. And Jim sighs. 

"My childhood was complicated," he admits in the understatement of the century. 

"Oh,"Bones breathes out. 

They've never talked about this. 

Jim has carefully avoided it all with jokes and vague statements followed by quickly changing the subject. 

And Bones has never pushed before. 

But he feels like he might need to push a tiny bit today. 

"Did your mom hit you?" Bones asks. 

"What? God no," Jim chuckles. And Bones can feel that he's going to steer them away from this topic fast. But he's not really willing to let him this time. 

"Then who did," Bones asks. 

It's a direct question he knows Jim will have a hard time dodging. 

Jim sighs. 

"My step dad. Cliche right?" he chuckles again. But Bones is in no mood to laugh. 

He runs his thumb up and down against the hard edge of Jim's shoulder blade through his shirt and he nods as he tries to piece a few things together on his own. The less Jim has to take the initiative to talk the better this might be so he takes another stab and asks another question. 

"Was he an alcoholic like I was when we met? Is that...is that why I remind you..." Bones stops and shrugs. He feels awful that he's somehow made someone he loves with all his soul feel unsafe. But Jim's eyes widen in shock and he shakes his head. 

"What? Oh, no no no, no Bones it's not like that. No he was perfectly sober. Just angry I guess. No that's just it. You don't remind me of him at all. Ever. It was just...today..." He shrugs. "The look on your face when she threw that brush, scared me," he admits. "I'd never seen you look like that before." 

"What terrified and a little bit angry? I'd think you'd be used to that look on my face by now kid, I give it to you every time you beam aboard hurt," Bones says with a grin. Jim frowns and blinks. 

Now that he thinks about it that is the look he saw. 

"I just. I thought. You've never been mad at Joanna like that before," Jim says. Bones chuckles. 

"You've never seen it. But you've only ever seen us together for very short time frames with visits before. This has been three weeks. We've settled into real life Jim. That's all. Oh!" Bones jumps and looks at his watch. "I need to go check on her and make sure she's ok. He gets to his feet and he pauses. "Would...would you like to come with me?" He asks. Jim nods and is on his feet immediately. Bones nods back and takes his hand. 

They head back down the hallway and pause in front of her bedroom door and Bones looks at him and waits for Jim to nod his okay, which he does immediately. And Bones nods back as he knocks and then opens the door. 

"Come in," they hear Joanna say and the second Jim pokes his head around the corner her eyes widen and she scrambles off the bed to launch herself into him. "I'm so sorry I got mad at you I didn't mean it I'm sorry," she says. Jim glances at Bones but immediately drops to his knees against the carpet so he can gather up Joanna in a proper, big hug. 

"It's okay. I'm sorry my teasing got outta hand. It's ok." 

"I love you I don't want you to feel bad," she says with a mild howl as she buries her face into his shoulder and he sighs. He glances up at Bones who is beaming and he closes his eyes and smiles back. 

"I love you too," Jim says. "I don't want you to feel bad either." 

"You know Jim here tried to break down the door earlier just to make sure you were ok?" Bones says. Joanna giggles and leans back a bit but refuses to unwind her arms from around Jim's neck. So he sits on the ground and let's her sit on his lap as they look at each other and she giggles harder. 

"Jim you didn't," she laughs. He likes hearing her say his name, and he grins so big his face hurts. 

"I did," he says. Bones squats down next to them and runs his hand over his daughters messy hair. 

"And I'm very proud of both of you for apologizing. Sometimes we get upset and that's okay. But Jo Jo next time just explain how you feel and Jim will stop. Right away. You don't need to throw things." 

"Yes daddy," she says as she leans against Jim's shoulder. 

"Alright now come on. Let's go outside and run off some energy before we go get dinner. Alright?" Bones says as he reaches to take Joanna's hand and pulls her to her feet. She unwinds from Jim but not before planting a big kiss on his cheek and then she launches herself into hug her daddy too. He kisses the top of her head dramatically and grins has she runs off and he offers his hands to Jim to help him stand. 

"Thanks," Jim says and before he can stop himself he wraps Bones in a hug. Bones freezes for a second but hugs him back and Jim sighs. "I'm sorry I overreacted," he says. 

"You didn't overreact. You were looking out for my kid, Jim. Never apologize for that. But Jim. You're safe here. Anytime you wanna talk about that? Please. Let me help," Bones says. Kissing the side of his head. 

"Bones I will." 

And for the first time in his life he thinks that he might be telling the truth when he says he'll talk. 

He really will.

**Author's Note:**

> In which I am Jim anytime ANYONE gets mad at their kids around me. Even in the grocery story I freak out a bit. 
> 
> Just my knee jerk reaction. 
> 
> I know a vast majority of kids as totally safe. 
> 
> Being a kid and a parent is rough.


End file.
